In the age of social media, businesses that build and maintain a Facebook® presence, can closely monitor their online growth. They can actually measure with nearly pinpoint accuracy the effectiveness of every post made! The simple fact the so many business owners don't understand the value of having such a page for their own business, doesn't mean that their competitors haven't discovered the edge that having one has given them! Maybe one of the funniest excuses ever given for not having a Facebook® page is that many small business owners say their customers wouldn't use it!

 

Should you be one of those unfortunates, who is party to this misguided logic, here's an update; Your customers are on Facebook® and, yes, they have already noticed that your business is not!

 

If you're suprised, you shouldn't be! ~ But, if you're having a hard time getting started with building your business Facebook® page, we can help to put your business on the right track!

 

 

Many of today's business owners feel overwhelmed. And it isn't, necessarily, because they have an abundance of work. It is, however, caused by the changing face of marketing in a world firmly entrenched in social media. Operating a computer and using it for business are a necessity in the modern business world. However, operating a PC and building a social media presence for a business are two entirely different things. While it is true doing one requires the other, if you struggle with basic computer operations, the concept of building a social media presence, most likely, seems light years away from being a conceivable reality! Since the sole purpose of a blog is to post interesting and relevant content about your product, it's not rocket science. If you know your product or service well, then you need to be able to talk about it! Put simply, a business owner needs to 'be their product'!

It wasn't so long ago that when people were looking for businesses, they went straight for the Yellow Pages®. It was specific, fairly comprehensive and local, too! People have always liked being able to find a local business quickly. Sometimes, they knew the name of the business they were seeking. Other times, they might just be seeking a service provider, but not have a specific company in mind. In either case, the Yellow Pages® usually delivered and it didn't cost a cent! Decades ago, directory assistance became an automated, excessively time consuming source of frustration!

"Cape Coral Walmart, please" would too often be replied to with something like; "I think you said 'Aunt Cora's Wallboard', is that correct?" 

The migration to listing businesses online was neither unexpected nor surprising, but it did leave many business owners with a feeling of uncertainty about their own advertising.

 

Since the establishment of the Fair Labor Standards Act, the United States Department of Labor has been responsible for establishing wage standards for registered employers. According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, the current minimum hourly wage earned by any non-tax exempt employee has been established to be $7.25 per hour. The last time the D.O.L. raised the minimum wage amount was back in 2009. At the time, that wage was adjusted upward for inflation, the corresponding minimum wage for "Tipped employees" didn't change. For a tipped employee, an employer is ** “only required to pay $2.13 an hour in direct wages, if that amount plus the tips received equals at least the federal minimum wage..”.

Given the disparity between these wages, it can be inferred that 'tipping accordingly' is nothing short of an art form, best practiced by people with prior service experience and adequate math skills. 

 

Unless your company has been hiding under a rock, then you're probably aware of the massive growth of business involvement on social media sites. Maybe your company has managed to build a Google® Places listing, or perhaps establish a Twitter® account and find a few persons to follow? If so, then you''ve (at least) taken the first steps to establish your social business presence online, beyond having built a website. However, if you fail to see the relevance of social media activity in relation to your company being found online, perhaps a closer look at a present day search engine results page may enlighten you.

 

 

With the closing of tourist season, many southwest Floridians are already anticipating the arrival of next year. With the local economic outlook improving, many businesses are planning for an increase in next year's marketing budgets. Based upon recently published statistical trends, businesses are finding traditional advertising channels less effective than ever before. A recent poll found that 86% of all TV viewers skip television commercials! Results from the same poll found that 44% of all direct mail is never examined. The strongest finding of the poll may have been that these numbers are increasing! Clearly, the small business owner can no longer rely solely upon advertising to fuel their own business growth.


Image Courtesy: Silicon Cloud

It is with great honor that we wish to inform members and visitors to our site of a development. It has been brought to our attention that one of our members wanted to see us recognized for our contribution. Feeling so very honored and pleased at the same time, we wanted to share the news! It is with great enthusiasm that we wish to announce the nomination of Greatest Cape for the Celebration of Business and Tourism's 2011 CHRYSALIS AWARD in the Business Development category.


Image Courtesy - Lee County Visitors and Conventions Bureau

The U.S. economy has certainly seen some rough times in recent years. As our nation slowly begins to emerge from under massive debt, the restructuring of our nations banking and financial industries will, hopefully, allow smaller businesses to finally be able to access badly needed funding. With newer incentives possibly soon to be available, today's small business owner needs to expand in order to reach a new customer base. Social media is poised to deliver a whole generation of new customers in ways that many small business owners have only begun to consider.

You have, without a doubt, heard all the buzz. It's nearly impossible to ignore. Whether it's a friend, husband, wife or possibly your child, somebody you know is very active on the blogs or social networks and it's most likely a daily pursuit. The fact is that this behavior is part of a trend. When we say 'trend', we mean a real paradigm shift. A recent Nielsen Online study revealed that the amount of time persons spend online using social networks and blogs has increased by 43% over the same time period last year.

Southwest Florida's business community is vast in scope. As a recreational, business and residential destination, Cape Coral has, historically, been fortunate to have attracted a variety of industries. Few would argue that so much local growth is fueled in large part by tourism. Even with the present uncertainty concerning our Gulf Coast region, Cape Coral's local economy surges forward as summer arrives.